Read these Complaints Before you Buy

My Own Experience

First let me tell you that my own experience with the Jitterbug J and Plus has been pretty good.

I found only two things to complain about: the amount of phone
numbers you could store in the phone, and the cost of the voicemail.

Jitterbug Flip

50-entry Phonebook

The Jitterbug phonebook has a lot of neat features such as being able to
manage it from a web browser which is way more convenient than entering
the info on a phone. However, that’s not a typo in the heading. The
Jitterbug phonebook really does let you store only 50 numbers. I haven’t
seen another cell phone recently that lets you store less than a 100
numbers, and some phones even let you store unlimited numbers on
external memory cards though that’s probably more than you need.

Voicemail Costs $3 a Month

Voicemail costs an extra $3 a month. Plus you use up your airtime. On
the plus side, the voicemail is really easy to use with a good set of
instructions for setting it up. I have seen one complaint about the
voicemail reporting the wrong time and not giving notifications on time.
This is a pain, but not a problem restricted to Jitterbug. All phone
company voicemail systems occasionally seem to suffer from this problem.

Note that some of these complaints predate the introduction of the Jitterbug Plus and subsequent Jitterbug flip phones.

Now for the rest of the complaints.

Customer Service Complaints

People have complained about Jitterbug’s customer service and their
customer service representatives. These complaints include being on hold
for a long time, not being able to cancel service, getting unwanted
services added to their account, and not being able to return a phone
for a replacement or refund.

I personally have always found the customer service
representatives (CSR’s) to be friendly and helpful. Jitterbug uses North
America-based representatives, so the communication tends to be better
than with many other phone companies.

On the other hand, the CSR’s do try to "upsell" you on additional
services whenever you call. For example, when I first got the phone for
testing, I didn’t have voicemail, and a CSR convinced me to add it. I
wasn’t happy about paying an extra $3 a month as I noted above, but it
was a necessary feature.

For problems with returns and refunds, it’s important to get
those problems resolved within the call itself and not rely on an
additional emails or calls. Because the CRS's are at a call center, if
you have to call back, you’ll end up speaking to a different person and
have to rely on the notes taken by the previous person.

Still, it's an advantage that the call centers are based in North America. This support is free.

They also have "Live Operators" who help you make calls or add
people to your phonebook. This service, as opposed to the regular
customer service, does come out of your airtime.

Billing Complaints

People have complained about Jitterbug’s billing and their billing
department. Specific complaints include getting billed for services they
don’t use, being unable to cancel service, not getting refunds, and not
getting itemized bills, and being overbilled on their credit cards.

The solution to this is to make sure you get a paper bill which
details all the services you are being charged for including taxes and
fees. All these charges are clearly laid out on the bill, including the
number of minutes used. You won’t get a list of calls, but this is
common with providers that rely on another company’s network (Verizon in
this case) for the actual calls. You can keep a call history on the
phone itself, if you want to try to maintain a record of your calls.

Complaints about Coverage

A couple of complaints were about Jitterbug’s coverage
in the past. Earlier, Jitterbug relied on coverage from a patchwork of
companies which sometimes led to coverage problems. They’ve now switched
to using Verizon’s network, so those problems are gone for most people.
You can check your coverage at the street level on Verizon’s coverage locator.

Phone Quality

A few complaints are actually about the phone
itself. These include problems with charging the phone, and various
glitches such as the ringer volume being too low or the ON/OFF button
not working. (I can attest that the ringer volume on my Jitterbug is
plenty loud.)

These are probably rare, but it’s important to take care of them
before the 30 day guarantee period, and before you use up 30 minutes of
calling time.

It’s harder to check the battery since it takes longer for its
failure to become noticeable, especially since the Jitterbug comes with a
larger long-life battery which takes a long time to discharge. The
battery comes partially charged when you receive the phone, so you may
want to let it charge fully then let it discharge and then recharge it
again fully to make sure the battery charges properly.

So those are the main Jitterbug phone complaints
I’ve run across in my research. While all complaints should be taken
seriously, I believe they are relatively rare compared to the other
phones reviewed on this site.

Should You Get a Jitterbug?

I would recommend going ahead and getting a Jitterbug but make sure
to check it out when you first get it to make sure everything works.

You can limit your initial cost until you're sure it's the right
phone for you by signing up for the cheapest phone plan because they
don't refund the first months service. The basic plan only includes 200 minutes a month, but once you're happy with the phone, you can upgrade to a plan that is appropriate for you.